Author, keynote speaker, and customer experience consultant. Expert in customer service, the customer experience, customer centricity, hospitality, and building a customer-centric corporate culture. My most recently published title is "High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service." I'm an entrepreneur myself with a background in manufacturing, entertainment, marketing. I'm based in metro Seattle when not traveling. Reach me at 484-343-5881 or micah@micahsolomon.com

Obamacare Is An Entrepreneur's Best Friend

If we want more entrepreneurship in America, the fastest way to get there is via the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) that’s currently being held hostage in Washington.

I’ve been an entrepreneur my entire adult life, apart from breaks for sleeping. I’ve worked with other entrepreneurs, and would-be entrepreneurs, and should-be entrepreneurs, in organizations of varied sizes.

And I’m tired of the health insurance discussion being hijacked on supposed business grounds by propagandists from the chambers of commerce with their inherent conflict of interest as hawkers of insurance themselves.

And by the suddenly-so-concerned-about-healthcare-costs extremist critics. And by the primitive scare tactics of the people who think any kind of safety net (incl. social security) equates with socialism — whatever they picture “socialism” as.

These groups and individuals either don’t know, or have forgotten, or are willfully misrepresenting the realities of creating a business and working in one.

There are untold millions of would-be entrepreneurs in the U.S. hanging on, in quiet desperation, to deadening corporate jobs–because they can’t afford to leave. Millions who understand the catastrophic consequences of boldly heading out to uncharted entrepreneurial territory… only to have someone in the family develop a chronic illness or life-threatening condition.

Or who already have — themselves, or their kid, or their spouse — developed an acute or chronic illness, and thus can’t afford to quit a corporate job without destroying their family’s savings within a few months.

(And talk about an “inheritance tax” in today’s landscape if you die without sufficient insurance: The vast majority of healthcare expenses occurring in the last few months of life, underinsurance has been frequently leaving middle class and even upper middle class families suddenly and utterly destitute.)

Imagine the creative and economic boon when all of this talent and energy is released from the corporate tethers that bind it. It will be remarkable.

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The US is the only developed Western nation without a functioning safety net. And people are falling hard without one.

And one more thing:

Next time your kid is concussed on the soccer field, wouldn’t it be nice if she could get treated in an ER that is being used only as an ER, not a clinic of last resort filled with the uninsured?

(Image credit: AFP/Getty Images via @daylife)

And one more “one more thing”:

Next time you go out for dinner, wouldn’t it be comforting to know your sushi wasn’t prepared for you by someone whose hepatitis is undiagnosed, because they couldn’t afford to see a doctor?

Comments

Well, you are on Forbes, a website of, by, and for the already arrived, the sycophants, and the “soon to be” millionaires. So, don’t expect a lot of excitement over this article, even though it makes some good pints.

I get your point. But sitting around “talking amongst ourselves” gets nothing done. This is precisely the right venue for this discussion. I’m pretty sure there are a few would-be entrepreneurs out there who are having an “a-ha” moment right about now when they realize that they might have a chance to achieve their dream with reasonably priced healthcare support.

Thanks, Charlie. I think that it’s time that businesspeople stop letting these panic-stricken pseudo-businesspeople speak for us. Especially on these life and death issues. And I think it’s a mistake to assume that everyone who is in business shares the neanderthal or sub-neanderthal viewpoints that have been put out there in our names.

Most Millennials are not going to be affording those plans blithely if their businesses contribute to GDP/social nets. This is not a study of a few, or the fortunately funded when puppy-dog-eying, or puppy-dog-eying with hard-factored business plans. Clearly, that pool is not reflective of what is happening in America, or why pushing more is imperative to countless people and next-up generations.

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As an aspiring musician, with a family, I worked the corporate world for my entire life, so that I could provide my family with the healthcare they needed. Now retired, I finally get to persue my dream. Where would I be now, if I had had that healthcare support forty years ago?